| Jay is all over this, but I want to throw in my two cents as well. A bunch of Republicans seem to think that Sam Kitzenberg committed some great travesty by switching political parties two years after his last election (in that election he was primaried and the state party apparently supported his primary opponent).
At the same time that these Republicans howl that Kitzenberg will be considered a Democrat, they demand that Rick Jore be counted as a Republican. Now, Jore has not been a Republican for six years. He left the party in 2000 and he ran in a legislative district this year in a race where Republicans got precisely 0 votes. |
| Now, let's be clear. Party affiliation really means one thing: who do you vote for in leadership elections. It's really not much of a big deal beyond that. It also determines who gets to give you committee assignments, but that's theoretically because the people you agree to support in your caucus then get a say in where you get assigned (and some of this is theoretical, minority party folks get a say in committee assignments insofar as the majority party is willing to extend it as a courtesy).
So, Sam Kitzenberg comes back, decides he prefers Democratic leadership to Republican leadership and says he'll make it happen by switching caucuses. That's at least what we could call honest. In comparison, just two years ago, in the House, a bizarre group of Democrats and Republicans joined together to elect a Speaker who had the support of neither caucus. This time, the Republicans want the Constitutionalist member to count as a Republican for procedural issues (i.e. when party affiliation matters), but not to be treated as a Republican on substantive issues (i.e. when party affiliation never matters anyway).
If McGee is really terrified of people voting in ways for leadership that are an affront to the little letter behind the name that people back home pulled the lever for -- he should firmly put his foot down and yell at his House compatriots for their actions two years ago and this year. Or he should just realize that, ultimately, the individual is elected and gets to choose which caucus to join.
Kitzenberg had the decency to know that if he was, for all intents and purposes, changing parties, he needed to do it for real. If the GOP has a problem, they can try to recall him.
Similarly, if the GOP wants Rick Jore to be a Republican, they can ask him to switch parties. If his constituents have a problem, they can recall him. But party affiliation isn't a blood oath. It's simply a statement of loyalties. |
